In November 2005, the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) awarded grants to 30 Faith-Based and Community Organizations to implement a Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative (PRI) Demonstration.  The Initiative seeks to strengthen communities affected by large numbers of formerly incarcerated individuals through employment-centered projects that incorporate education, job training, housing referrals, mentoring, and other comprehensive transitional services.  The demonstration is based on the core premise that helping formerly incarcerated individuals find and maintain stable and legal employment will reduce recidivism and increase public safety. 

ETA contracted with an evaluation team from Coffey Consulting, LLC and Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. to evaluate the PRI’s 30 demonstration sites and to examine the implementation and outputs of the PRI.  The evaluation team analyzed demographic, programmatic, output and recidivism information from grantee operations and participants.  In addition, the evaluation analyzed the costs to participating communities for their provision of services to the formerly incarcerated individuals returning to their communities.